Clinical Coria outguns Agassi

IN a French Open battle of the ages, Guillermo Coria punched a hole clean through Andre Agassi's steel defences to reach his first grand slam semi-final yesterday.

One match short of his 1,000th as a professional, Agassi could scarcely have faced a man who hits the ball harder or with as much accuracy as the unassuming Argentine who triumphed 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 in a fraction over two-and-a-half hours.

"It's incredible, a dream come true to be here in the Roland Garros semi-finals," the 21-year-old said.

Crashing the ball with similar destructive force was Dutchman Martin Verkerk, who clattered his way past former champion Carlos Moya 6-3 6-4 5-7 4-6 8-6.

Playing in only his third grand slam event, it looked as though Verkerk had lost his chance when he allowed the Spaniard claw back a two-set deficit.

But, lashing at the ball with equal abandon on both the forehand and backhand side, his game clicked once more in the fifth set and he clinched it for his biggest win to date.

Coria took on Agassi at his own game. He stood and slugged it out with the 33-year-old master intimidator and won.

Caked in the ochre dust, the seventh seed grinned: "Agassi was my hero when I was growing up. This is amazing."

Amazing is the word to describe Coria's groundstrokes throughout the intriguing battle.

The pair traded the heaviest of blows throughout and with guts and grit by the bucketload, the Argentine won.

Serena Williams hinted yesterday at the secret that has turned her into the most successful woman in tennis when things get tough she enters a bubble.

The American world number one, still on course for her fifth successive victory in a grand slam tournament, demolished France's Amelie Mauresmo 6-1 6-2 and explained concentration was the key.

"When you're playing a player who the crowd loves so much ... and you're playing her in their country, then you have to put yourself in a bubble and pretend as if nothing's around and pretend as if you don't hear anything and just pretend you're the only person on that court and you're only playing her," Williams said.

Against the fifth seed, who had beaten her in Rome a week earlier, Serena actually looked as though she was playing in a vacuum, suffocating her opponent with winners.

Sometimes absent-minded when matches turn her way too easily, she looked at her French opponent as though she was ready to kill.

"At this stage of the tournament, you have to be ready to do just about anything," she said.

Revenge will also be on her mind in the semi-finals, when she meets Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne, the other player to have beaten her this season on clay in Charleston.

"I just feel that I have to play well again and stay focused throughout, because she's playing very well here," she said.

By winning Roland Garros a second time in succession, she would equal Australian Margaret Court's total of 35 grand slam matches won in a row. Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova jointly hold the record with 45 match victories.

Despite reaching her sixth grand-slam semi-final in succession, Serena insisted she did not feel blasé.

"It doesn't feel routine at all. I feel very pumped up to be in the semi-final and I want to go ahead and win more matches here," she said.

Serena is obviously not intimidated by her opponents but there is one thing she is afraid of at big tennis tournaments blood testing for doping, and needles.

"I don't like blood testing because I don't like needles and I cry, ever since I was younger. It's a sad point for me that it (doping tests) had to go this far. But I don't like needles ... I have a phobia with needles."

Champion on Hamburg's clay earlier this month and a runner-up in Monte Carlo in April, Coria's claycourt pedigree is second to none this year.

With all the tools to dismantle Agassi at his disposal, the only fear was that mentally he might not have been up to the job.

It had looked a well-grounded fear when he frittered away a 4-1 lead in the opening set to hand it to the American, champion here in 1999.

But that one moment of frailty was the only weakness Coria showed.

He raced through the second and third sets with remarkable ease despite Agassi blasting a number of winners of his own.

Coria's nerve held firm when it mattered most and he continued to spray the ball past the lunging Agassi right to the end.